This invention relates to a lid opening/closing apparatus capable of opening the lid of a console box from either side (driver's seat and front passenger seat) of an automobile for example.
Heretofore, as shown in Japanese Patent Laid-open Print No. 189249/1991, there is an apparatus of this type comprising two pairs of rods which protrude or retract from the side end face of a lid body being connected with a knob (operation section) disposed on the top face of the lid body by means of a cam and, when protruded, engage with a hole at the opening edge part of a console box, retracting either one pair of rods of the two pairs of rods into the lid body according to the operating direction of the above knob, and opening the lid body to a prescribed side with the remaining rods as the rocking axis (hinge).
However, the above conventional opening/closing apparatus is to open the lid in both directions by operating two pairs of rods by means of one knob. When the knob which was pressed in one direction to open the lid body in one direction was returned to the other direction after opening the lid body, the rod which was operating as the hinge was retracted and the lid body was separated from the console box.
As the movement of the knob is linked with the movement of the rod by the cam which is slidably contacted, force for pressing the knob and stroke required for opening the lid body were hardly set to an appropriate value respectively.
Specifically, when the force pressing the knob is principally determined by the specification of a spring energizing the rod and an inclination of the slidably contacting face of the cam and rod, by setting the stroke to a desired value according to the inclination of the slidably contacting face and by determining the specification (such as spring constant) of the above spring by considering the set inclination, the force pressing the knob can be set to a desired value.
But, in the above structure, there is an indispensable friction between the rod and the cam. The resistance by this friction varies depending on the condition of the slidably contacting face and increases as the above inclination is increased with respect to the moving direction of the knob in order to decrease the operation stroke of the knob. Therefore, it is actually difficult to set the operating force of the knob to a certain value by designing.
This invention has been completed by paying attention to the above problems of conventional techniques and aims to provide a lid opening/closing apparatus which has little possibility that the lid body is removed when the lid body is opened, and operating force and operating stroke can be easily set, and opening and closing can be made easily and surely.